The panel encountered a problem while loading "OAFIID:MATE_m

[schulmanworks]

I have read through about ten other threads on this issue. Unfortunately, none of the advice has worked. My desktop looks very similar to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADRvDoWg2co , except that I run Linux Mint 14 64-bit MATE. I believe my problem is that I installed python 3.3.0, and, for whatever reason, it has become the primary interpreter of my system. I saw some advice involving the term "$path", but I have no idea what that means or how to change it.
I have tried:
1) updating from terminal
2) uninstalling and re-installing mintmenu
3) removing python3 (although I don't think it worked because it's still in my /usr/bin)
4) All the advice in the following links:
viewtopic.php?f=206&p=678329
viewtopic.php?f=206&p=664077
viewtopic.php?f=206&p=640982
viewtopic.php?f=206&p=678892
http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=206&p=631504
http://forum.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=206&p=677113

Please help! I'm fairly new to Linux, and I would really like to have my menu back. Also, once I get this working again, I'm going to backup everything. Anyone know a good backup utility?
My desktop/error message

Thank you!